During his first government (1870–1877), the President Antonio Guzmán Blanco developed a program that aspired to centralize Venezuela politic and economically. One of the approved dispositions was to close Maracaibo`s and La Vela ports, for the importing and export operations carried out from the Venezuelan and Colombian Andes, through the Caribbean. These functions were transferred to the distant Puerto Cabello. An extensive part of the West Country was affected by this measure that did not consider the long historic tradition of economic centres that for centuries had headed the farming export activities of its respective commercial environments. The measure did not only damaged the interests of the historic region of the Lake and Coro, even favoured economic rival groups established in the north-centre region, associates with the republic president. In the Zulia particle case, the Maracaibo`s port closing action affected financial experts, small and big merchants, truckers, seafaring, sailors, producers and different state collective; other affected sectors were the merchants linked with this activity in Colombia and Curaçao